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Page 1 of 1 Setting out on the path to dynamic web site development can be a daunting task — it really is a whole new ball game. We can make things a little easier on ourselves by making an adjustment within Internet Explorer's default settings and do away with the dreaded, and utterly useless, HTTP 500 error.
The HTTP 500 error is a generic error message that Internet Explorer passes out to you when your web site errors for one reason or another; it provides no useful information at all. We can change this setting, as we shall see in a short while, to allow you to see and read what the real error is. Good error information is essential to the debugging of any application, and the HTTP 500 error causes much grief to folks that are new to web site development and test in Internet Explorer.
To enable Internet Explorer to show you the root cause of any error in your code, you need to make a change in the Internet Options window. You can access the Internet Options window by selecting the Internet Options item from the Tools menu at the top of Internet Explorer.
Once the Internet Options window is open, select the Advanced tab, as shown in Image 1.
Image 1: The Internet Options Window
Accessing the Advanced options displays a window that contains many settings that can be changed within Internet Explorer. These settings are broken down into categories. The category we are interested in is the Browsing Category.
Image 2: Show friendly HTTP error messages
Scrolling down the window will bring you to the Show friendly HTTP error messages checkbox. By default this box is checked in order to hide the real error from your users. Once you have located this checkbox, remove the check and click the OK button. You can now retest any problem pages that you have had difficulty with and see the real error message that is being generated. Once you can see what the real error message is, then debugging your page becomes so much easier.
In this article we have seen how we can set Internet Explorer to show us the real error message that is generated by our code. This is a very simple thing to do that makes our work so much easier. While the more experienced amongst us will be very aware of this function, the HTTP 500 error is something that many who are new to server-side web development struggle with. Hopefully not anymore!
Until next time :~)
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Keywords
HTTP 500, friendly, error, messages, Internet Explorer
